and so it starts

Dropped our first feather and hes eating like there is no tomorrow he is back up to trap weight of 940g and still pretty tame , bates rarely.

Feeding a mixture of Mice, Squirrel and Quail right now

End of Season

Things have got busy and its the end of the season now anyway. Under Oklahoma Falconry regulations i could carry on rabbiting but allots going on right now. I'm still having asthma attacks and that's wearing me down a litttle. So with all that in mind i decided to put Shiloh up for the summer, get the molt over and done with and getting going as soon as possible. I'm going to try him on Rabbits and Squirrels in the Autumn and probably Crows and Pigeons.

It's been an interesting season, i caught more with Willow as in a rabbit and a skunk but the whole experience just wasn't fun. Didn't catch anything with Shiloh but we sure did give it our best try and had plenty of slips. He's a gaming bird just got to work on getting him to follow better. I wish i had had some success like some of the other apprentices in North Oklahoma, jacks, Cotton's and everything else would have been nice and i tip my hat to them. I think the most i learnt this year was about medical issues as well as behaviour issues. I also learnt to trust my instincts when something isn't going right. It's easy to doubt yourself when your in charge of a wild animal and am wanting the best for it as well as have some fun for yourself. The biggest difference i think that helped me this year was a screen perch. The amount of batting that was reduced because the bird was higher up and wasn't able to go very far was allot more satisfying than with the bow perch on the ground.

I did gain a new friend in Bill Boni one that I'm thank full of. Thanks also as always goes to be best friend Steve Armstorng who even though wasn't around much this year and we only got to hunt with each other half a dozen times this year ( Not enough by any stretch of the imagination) was around when it mattered. Also thanks to Ryan Van Zant for a couple of pointers he sent my way.



Things will be different in October , i will be eligible to upgrade to a general and have multiple birds. I want a Passage Coopers Hawk. I love accipters they are considered the Ninjas of the falconry world.

The Mews is going to be modified to take 2 birds and the pigeon coop has already under gone some major changes.  


 I'll post more pictures when i have completed it. The few pigeons i have left seem to appreciate the changes and have already produced 3 chicks this month.

So to sum up Shiloh is fat 900 grams and we await the molt and feeding lots of Mice and Quail.

Still sick but cat stay in any more

Well I'm still sick been stuck on steroids but the wife need some help so we took Shiloh out had 2 slips but nothing in the bag.

Also made a new hood...

There is something very therapeutic about making hoods i want to learn how to make Khan Hoods similar to the ones Ken Hooke 

Watched two hawks play tag with one of my pigeons today , it was quite spectacular with pigeon feathers flying every where. One minute nothing the next an exposure of feathers. There was two hunting together the other chased as my pigeons went in every direction. I am assuming the first carried the pigeon off. It never came back and i never found any other feathers. I am assuming it was a coopers hawk, (passage) but could have been a red Shouldered as i know we have a nesting pair near by.

HB 1249

Read Ryan's Blog a Little Mews on the Prairie on why this could be a bad thing for Oklahoma falconers.

Sick

The kids have been sick and i have been sick so not much chance to get out. Hopefully everything will change at the weekend. So all i have been doing is reenforcing the glove.

Weekend Hunt

Headed out to Norman to hunt with Bill this weekend. Bill is an urban falconer with lots of waste land. We certainly had plenty of slips but the end result was nothing in the bag. Shiloh some how managed to loose his transmitter (leg mount) bill managed to find it for me but there appears to be some damage to it so we will look into mounting or do something different.

Shiloh was coming to the fist pretty well , following wasn't that great and certainly something we will work on.

We moved to a different field and watched 3 Red Tails fighting over territory. Shiloh hunkered down in a tree and stayed there till the coast was clear. Eventually Shiloh started self hunting. We had been hunting over two hours and it was a long drive home so time to call it a day.

and we are off

I started free flying Shiloh again on Monday.

We had a good chase on a rabbit but the rabbit was faster. The aerial acrobatics amazed me as he flew through a barbed wire fence at one point to continue the chase. I pulled the lure out and we called it a day.

Yesterday we had about 4 slips on rabbits. I think for 3 of those slips it was probably the same rabbit. This is a survivor rabbit so hes going to be tricky to catch, he certainly is a very fast bunny. Shiloh is coming to the fist in the field allot better, Following on isn't so great but that will come with time. The lighter evenings are defiantly helping with it getting dark about 6.30pm so more time in the field.

My sponsor Steve Armstrong is getting ready for a trip to the Texas Canyons, He goes a couple of times a year to visit the Prairie Falcons and listen to the Sand Cranes. His Harris Hawk is up for the molt and shedding feathers like a bust feather pillow. Hopefully he''l be using the latest and greatest in technology to blog from there and send us pictures and videos of his experiences.

The aims for this week is to get Shiloh out every night and then on Saturday I'm going hunting with Bill Boni in Norman. Bills a great guy and has allot of experience and is also well published. He's currently putting together a book on Flying and Hunting Coopers Hawks , which i cant wait to read.

I will probably stop hunting Shiloh at the end of the month (March 31st) hopefully we can get a few rabbits in the bag before then. I plan to put him up for the molt and then start hunting him again in September.